This week all of us in Warren paid our property taxes, and we paid more than last year. In addition to what Sugarbush Resort paid, this year the new owners of Clay Brook paid $760,000 in taxes. This is virtually newfound money. It amounts to approximately 25 percent of the town's school budget.

This should have been a tremendous benefit to the town of Warren and its residents, and it should have resulted in everyone's property tax going down by 10 to 15 percent rather than up. Unfortunately this is not the case. The $760,000 disappears somewhere into Montpelier and only a fraction of it will find its way back to our town. Our tax system in clearly broken, and we need to find a better solution.

It is time for our elected officials to recognize that our current property tax laws need to be discarded in favor of new legislation that allows new taxes from projects like Clay Brook to benefit our town and lower taxes for all homeowners rather than raising them. They also need to recognize that spending can and must be reduced. It clearly can be without affecting the quality of the education we offer to our children in Vermont.